“He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in.”
— The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
Now some folks say its too big and uses too much gas
Some folks say its too old and that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a honda, its bigger than a subaru–Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen
Just back from an all-too-short visit with my brother and his family. In a few days the family –all but new college freshman Ryan– heads home to Indonesia. Probably won’t see my brother again for almost four years.
We exchanged gifts and I maintained my position as the goofy uncle who comes through with cool gifts (or cash). My sister-in-law Tonya gave me this framed photo (of my brother and me). I don’t remember her taking the photo (during a visit this summer), but I love it.
It reminds me that money cannot purchase the best gifts. They require time and effort and love.
Lord knows there are no shortage of photos of smays.com. I’ve taken lots myself. But the the ones I like most have always been taken by someone else. And almost always without my knowledge.
Perhaps what I like about these images is they capture the me that isn’t “on,” mugging for the camera. Posing. No way to take such an honest photo of yourself.
Thank you, Tonya. I will treasure this gift.
Dr. David Weinberger –co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto– advises liberals to chill out:
“I’m a liberal. Free the whales, tax the rich, I swear to you that not only do I drive a Prius, I turned in our Volvo for it. If you know any one of my political positions, you know them all. That’s how embarrassingly stereotyped I am. So pardon me if I take a moment to give some advice to my fellow liberals and progressives: Chill out, will you?”
If you read the full post at NPR.org you’ll understand why many of us are so high on BHO
Our sports division does sales training conference calls every month and we record these and post them to a blog on our intranet. Sometimes these involve a single property but yesterday all 40+ offices around the country took part. As I listened to the roll-call as they were getting started I was struck by how much our company has grown in the 25 years since I started. Back then I think we worked with just three universities. Anyway, here’s a minute of the roll call.
AUDIO 1 min MP3
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I don’t know if I enjoy reading Terry Heaton because he’s smart or because I usually agree with him. In his latest essay he looks ahead to what he believes are the real challenges for media companies in 2009. It’s a very hope filled essay. Here are a couple of my favorite graphs:
“Whereas the Industrial Age forced the creation of powerful city states (the labor force had to be centrally located), the Information Age allows us to be where we want to be. Watch for movement to friendly, peaceful surroundings, where the locals have been smart enough to build hubs along the information superhighway. Contrarians will argue that people working from home will be isolated, but from what? What new businesses will spring up to cater to American workers in the future?
Whereas the Industrial Age brought us corporate marketing, the Age of Participation heralds the world of personal marketing and personal branding and a time of influence in expanding circles, rather than top-to-bottom. The time to gain traction in this world is today, for today’s action will determine your place in tomorrow’s culture.”
I did the sign-on shift for most of my time on the radio. And on days that it snowed (not that often in southeast Missouri), the phone would ring off the hook from parents (and students) asking about school closings. The superintendent would get out early to check the roads and then call the radio stations.
Even though we gave the closings every 5 minutes, the phone never stopped ringing. It was madness.
We got a little snow here in Jefferson City overnight and while Shawna was bringing me my oatmeal, she got a text message from the Jefferson City school system, alerting her there would be no school today.
The school uses texting to communicate a variety of things, even providing updates throughout the day.
I assume the local radio stations still get a call and many people rely heavily on the on-air reports. This is just one more instance of disintermediation. The people with the information (schools) communicating directly to the people who want/need the information (students/parents).
I’m guessing most folks don’t give their mobile numbers to just anybody. And how valuable is it to the schools to have the mobile number of every “customer?”
Do most radio stations have the mobile numbers of the listeners? I would hope so. And are they using those numbers to provide something as valuable as school closing information?
I have difficulty eating unless I am reading something. It can be anything. The back of a cereal box I’ve read 100 times before, a phone bill, anything.
I used to buy USA Today each morning but stopped a couple of years ago. Since then I have book with me or stories from the web, printed out the night before. When eating breakfast at home, I sometime just flip open the Mac. Not practical at the Town Grill.
But the iPhone… with Google’s News Reader app? Hard to resist. Flip the phone to landscape orientation and the stories are easy to read and flip through.
Only marginally related…
I’ve been making more phone calls since getting the iPhone. Old friends I haven’t spoken to in years. I’ve been thinking about why I didn’t call them on the tracfone (which expires today, I believe). The reason, I’ve concluded, is that it was too hard to enter all those phone numbers. I just never got around to it. Since the iPhone syncs with damned near evertything on the MacBook… there’s very little data entry on the phone. And you know what, I love associating a photo with each contact. Yeah, this is old stuff to long-time mobile users, but still new and fun for me.
The Twin Hells, by John N. Reynolds, claims to be “A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries.” I haven’t read the entire account yet but will share this excerpt about the Missouri penitentiary:
“The inmates of the Missouri penitentiary are well clothed. In this respect, this prison has no rival. All the prisoners presented the appearance of being cleanly, so far as their clothing is concerned. All are dressed in stripes. None are exempt. Here are nearly two thousand men on an equality. None of them can look down upon others, and say, I am more nicely dressed than you. I never saw a convict dude in the entire lot. The prisoners are well fed. For breakfast, the bill of fare consists of bread, coffee, without milk or sugar, and hash. There is no change to this bill of fare. If the prisoner has been there for ten years, if not in the hospital, he has feasted upon hash every morning. Boiled meat, corn bread, potatoes and water makes up the dinner, and for supper the convict has bread, molasses and coffee. The principal objection to this diet is its monotony. Whenever a change of diet becomes a strict necessity, the prisoner is permitted to take a few meals in the hospital dining-room. Here he receives a first-class meal. This is a capital idea. A great deal of sickness is prevented by thus permitting the convict to have an occasional change of diet. On holidays, such as Thanksgiving day, Christmas, etc., an extra dinner is given, which is keenly relished by all. I have before me a statement of the expenses for a Sunday breakfast and dinner. There are only two meals given on Sunday. The hash was made up of 612 pounds of beef, 90 pounds of bacon, and 30 bushels of potatoes. Fifty-one pounds of coffee were used, and four and a half barrels of flour. The entire meal cost $68.38.”
It appears the account above is from the late 1800’s. I have not idea of the time period represented by the postcard below (from Bob Priddy’s extensive collection of Missouri postcards)
MissouriDeathRow.com was one of the first websites I did. And it looks like it. This was before flickr and Typepad and such. So I’m doing a little make-over. Hope to have it complete by the end of the year.
I’m starting with images and documents related to those executed in Missouri’s gas chamber. First time out, I just posted photos of the condemned. This time I’m posting the… not sure what to call it… the record or card for each inmate [flickr slideshow].
I scanned these from the state archives. For some reason, I find them fascinating.
The state archive has a file on each of the inmates executed in the gas chamber. I spent a week going through these, scanning as much as time allowed. Letters, notes, telegrams…
On June 24, 1962, Odom and another Death Row inmate attempted an escape. Odom’s file contained a report by the guard on duty at the time. I’ve also included (from his appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court) a description of the crime for which Odom was executed.
